Gathering enough food to live off the land for a year

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
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Interesting this has give me a lot to think about thank you .
You're welcome. Well worth joining a rifle club. It will help with your FAC application and you can normally borrow a club rifle to practice with. Personally I wouldn't be bound to big Red deer. The logistics is difficult. Simply transporting a carcass that large is difficult. No way one person - or even two people - could lift it far. If you look at that Fallow doe you will see it's on a handy billy (block & tackle) just to make the skinning manageable. It weighs a quarter of a large complete Red Stag. I would far rather a number of Roe. Easier to process & transport and you don't have to preserve it all at once. Personally in the UK I would look to small game as well. Around here you could take a wood pigeon a day with little effort. A few minutes to process & no preserving required - just cook & eat.

My advice is just start. You will develop different approaches and skills as you figure out what works for you. It doesn't have to be all or nothing - we've been working on it for more than ten years.
 

1 pot hunter

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Oct 24, 2022
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You're welcome. Well worth joining a rifle club. It will help with your FAC application and you can normally borrow a club rifle to practice with. Personally I wouldn't be bound to big Red deer. The logistics is difficult. Simply transporting a carcass that large is difficult. No way one person - or even two people - could lift it far. If you look at that Fallow doe you will see it's on a handy billy (block & tackle) just to make the skinning manageable. It weighs a quarter of a large complete Red Stag. I would far rather a number of Roe. Easier to process & transport and you don't have to preserve it all at once. Personally in the UK I would look to small game as well. Around here you could take a wood pigeon a day with little effort. A few minutes to process & no preserving required - just cook & eat.

My advice is just start. You will develop different approaches and skills as you figure out what works for you. It doesn't have to be all or nothing - we've been working on it for more than ten years.
Woodpigion is my favourite game actually it’s the common mans grouse.
 
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1 pot hunter

Banned
Oct 24, 2022
379
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You're welcome. Well worth joining a rifle club. It will help with your FAC application and you can normally borrow a club rifle to practice with. Personally I wouldn't be bound to big Red deer. The logistics is difficult. Simply transporting a carcass that large is difficult. No way one person - or even two people - could lift it far. If you look at that Fallow doe you will see it's on a handy billy (block & tackle) just to make the skinning manageable. It weighs a quarter of a large complete Red Stag. I would far rather a number of Roe. Easier to process & transport and you don't have to preserve it all at once. Personally in the UK I would look to small game as well. Around here you could take a wood pigeon a day with little effort. A few minutes to process & no preserving required - just cook & eat.

My advice is just start. You will develop different approaches and skills as you figure out what works for you. It doesn't have to be all or nothing - we've been working on it for more than ten years.
Brown Trout is v nutritious also I can catch bunches using bait in just a evening ,when I’m a full member il post pics.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,888
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Mercia
I certainly take more 'meat' for the pot with my air rifle than I do with my firearms and shotguns!
Certainly the modern PCP air rifles are extremely capable at sensible ranges and don't spoil the meat. They are also a great way to learn field craft & ballistics - I have a calibrated reticle chart for mine.

I've just invested in a day / night vision sight & intend to train by fitting to my S510 before using it on anything with more range. Right now I'm a competent day time shooter that owns night vision. I am very aware that this does not make me a competent night shooter!
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
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@1 pot hunter
BR's right about the low fat on some meats.
Some of my friends hunt, and one was a butcher to trade.
His latest was pigeon breast burgers. Even those are low fat though, so he adds some of the fat removed from pope's eye steak...I'm told that's a Scottish butcher's cut, and down south you'll know it as a rump steak. It's generally finely marbled, but there's usually a hefty layer of fat on top of the cut......he does the same when he makes up venison lorne. For the venison lorne sausage he uses the shoulder of the deer.
M
 

1 pot hunter

Banned
Oct 24, 2022
379
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Sheffield
Certainly the modern PCP air rifles are extremely capable at sensible ranges and don't spoil the meat. They are also a great way to learn field craft & ballistics - I have a calibrated reticle chart for mine.

I've just invested in a day / night vision sight & intend to train by fitting to my S510 before using it on anything with more range. Right now I'm a competent day time shooter that owns night vision. I am very aware that this does not make me a competent night shooter!
I was very good with a simple springer as a child
 

1 pot hunter

Banned
Oct 24, 2022
379
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31
Sheffield
@1 pot hunter
BR's right about the low fat on some meats.
Some of my friends hunt, and one was a butcher to trade.
His latest was pigeon breast burgers. Even those are low fat though, so he adds some of the fat removed from pope's eye steak...I'm told that's a Scottish butcher's cut, and down south you'll know it as a rump steak. It's generally finely marbled, but there's usually a hefty layer of fat on top of the cut......he does the same when he makes up venison lorne. For the venison lorne sausage he uses the shoulder of the deer.
M
Offcourse that’s why u eat nose to tail brain 70% fat one marrow liver organs ect historically they was the most prized parts on wild game.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,888
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I was very good with a simple springer as a child
I enjoyed shooting them too, but modern pre-charged are a whole different animal. I didn't bother for a long time as I have FAC & SGC options but they are incredibly accurate & almost completely silent. Coupled with the latest sights which incorporate night vision, laser range finder & ballistic calculator their effectiveness is at another level. Ping a laser off a rabbit 50 metres away in total darkness, the sight calculates the pellet drop and shows you where to aim squeeze the trigger and there is no recoil and less noise than opening a bottle of coke. Now some may say "not sporting" but if I choose to shoot something I want it humane, clinically accurate and not to disturb other creatures. Modern PCPs offer that in big doses. Even with a Hawke scope they put pellets on top of each other at 40 yards in daytime at 2% of the cost of a centrefire round.
 

Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,669
McBride, BC
East of me, out on the Great Plains, the total bison population by 1750 was estimated to be 60,000,000. A bow and arrow will not kill a bison. Buffalo jumps and spearing the wounded and crippled is very efficient.

There are lots of garbage middens, well used by the tribes of that territory. What you find are bison bones in pieces no larger than postage stamps.
Crushed with stone mauls, the First Nations clearly understood the nutritional value of the fatty marrow in the long bones.

Preservation? Thin sliced, which is really easy with flint edges, and smoke dried with the texture of wood. They had clay, they made pots, they could cook and reconstitute the bison.
Many species of wild onions, varieties of corn, squashes and beans.
I've eaten 6-7 bison since 2001. Buy a side, cut wrapped, labelled and frozen, maybe get 70% of the hook weight, hide off. I always planned (big joke) to set up a smoke rack with alder and dry 10kg. I've made seasoned jerky from the mince, totally addictive. Totally. I don't think that I could do a winter on smoke-dried salmon. Gotta be some fresh food in there, somehow.
 
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1 pot hunter

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I enjoyed shooting them too, but modern pre-charged are a whole different animal. I didn't bother for a long time as I have FAC & SGC options but they are incredibly accurate & almost completely silent. Coupled with the latest sights which incorporate night vision, laser range finder & ballistic calculator their effectiveness is at another level. Ping a laser off a rabbit 50 metres away in total darkness, the sight calculates the pellet drop and shows you where to aim squeeze the trigger and there is no recoil and less noise than opening a bottle of coke. Now some may say "not sporting" but if I choose to shoot something I want it humane, clinically accurate and not to disturb other creatures. Modern PCPs offer that in big doses. Even with a Hawke scope they put pellets on top of each other at 40 yards in daytime at 2% of the cost of a centrefire round.
Iv purchased something atm wich is very cool it’s a slimgshot rifle only intended for rabbits it fires 8ml steels and is spot on accurate it has laser sight also il post a pic when I’m a full member.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,888
2,140
Mercia
I don't think that I could do a winter on smoke-dried salmon. Gotta be some fresh food in there, somehow.
I've see farmed Bison but never in the wild, I would enjoy that. I prefer Winter shooting. Its a good opportunity to cull individuals that aren't thriving or genetically weak. The leaves are off the trees giving a better view and its often quieter. Prey species are about more too as food is harder to come by
 
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Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
There are two kinds of bison in North America and they look physically quite different: Plains Bison and Woodland Bison.
I can't recall the major differences and I can't remember what we have locally.

The local bison ranch herd is about 50 animals in a partially treed pasture, 320 acres, I'd guess. There was a breeding core group and the 2 yr olds got harvested to great demand. I was, in fact, one of the very long term buyers. Superb, satisfying red meat quality. Very lean, maybe 3g fat/100g meat. Beef is commonly 10+g fat/100g meat. That's the Canadian analyses, others may show variations.
So recovering the marrow was a dietary necessity. Done with hand pecked stone mauls*. I can recall several used as stops for badly hung doors in my grandparent's farm house.

* there are rare modern examples made here in the Pacific Northwest as a major part of a wood carver's kit. Finding the stone would be the hard part. I believe that the bulk of the rough out could be done in a day with an angle grinder.
 
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1 pot hunter

Banned
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I've see farmed Bison but never in the wild, I would enjoy that. I prefer Winter shooting. Its a good opportunity to cull individuals that aren't thriving or genetically weak. The leaves are off the trees giving a better view and its often quieter. Prey species are about more too as food is harder to come by
There’s a farm in the U.K. somewere with bison I forgot the name u can buy the meat
 

Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Cut by cut, bison is just about unaffordable. However, if you have freezer space and enough coin, buy an entire side. Steaks, a few roasts and all the rest burger/mince (NO added fat).
The taste is everything that beef is trying to be. Now! You are in a very strong position to barter for all the meats and veg in your region. Believe me, you won't be chewing on the same beast all winter. I've got maybe 30 very good mince recipes.
I'll never make it to the coast but with today's prices, Pacific Halibut fish 500g is a fair trade for 1kg bison burger.

The only thing that I never got in trade was goat. I regret that I didn't do enough experiments smoking and drying bison, the old ways. I did make the real, traditional, Hudson's Bay Fur Trading Company 1775 pemmican. Top quality back strap fat and all but never the mythical added berries (the sweet goes moldy very fast). I wouldn't make pemmican twice.
 

FerlasDave

Full Member
Jun 18, 2008
1,857
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Off the beaten track
It might be worth having a look at this guy on YouTube. A couple of years ago they did a challenge of eating only wild food for a year, granted it’s in Canada and they did buy in wild rice etc but I think it’s along the same lines as you’re thinking.

 

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